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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29620890">After Effects</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediDryad/pseuds/JediDryad'>JediDryad</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>February Fluff: 28 Ways Luke and Mara Get it Together at last. [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Camping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Nightmares, Sleeping Bag Sex, Traumatic Dreams, camping cuddles, february fluff, sexual healing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:53:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29620890</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediDryad/pseuds/JediDryad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since she conquered the Emperor's last command, Mara Jade has found herself plagued by traumatic nightmares of her time as Emperor's Hand. When she experiences one while camped out on a mission with Luke Skywalker, he tries his best to help her work through her shame and guilt.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>February Fluff: 28 Ways Luke and Mara Get it Together at last. [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129439</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>After Effects</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Why?” the man said, his face filled with a horror she would never forget.</p><p>“Because you’re a traitor.”</p><p>And then came the flash of the blaster bolt that lit up the courtyard as his questing cry became a piercing impossible scream. He already laid dead at her feet, sightless eyes boring into her, but his cries echoed from wall to wall in an endless lament.</p><p>No, they didn’t come from the body at her feet. The growing wail was from the others: a shapeless mob approaching from the shadows, flutters of fabric, flashes of bones, empty sockets where eyes once shone. She remembered them. Their screams were in her ears, filling her head. Then they took off their cloaks and simply dissolved into fountains of blood that soaked the cobblestones around her like a sea, seeping up her dress until she was covered, saturated in blood, it leaked from her eyes and dripped from her pores.</p><p>She would never be free of it, never clean.</p><p>Never.</p><p>“Mara!”</p><p>Her eyes snapped open to trees stretching tall branches up to a star-filled night sky.<br/>
The air was cool, the ground soft.</p><p>Right. She was in the hills on Dantooine bedded down for the night, sleeping bag pulled up to her shoulders. Skywalker had asked for her help. For some reason, she’d said yes.</p><p>“Mara, are you okay?”</p><p>As she heard the voice again, she realized there was light to her right. The emergency lantern was on and Skywalker’s eyes were shadowed with worry in its flickering glow.</p><p>“I’m fine” she said, trying to mask her trembling voice as she sat up and faced him, “Just a dream.”</p><p>“Anything I should be concerned about?”</p><p>She smirked humorlessly at his attempted nonchalance.</p><p>“No more commands to kill you, if that’s what you mean.”</p><p>His warm smile had just enough edge to keep it from being completely intolerable.</p><p>“I suppose that’s good news. Just a normal nightmare then?”</p><p>She tightened her grip on the top of her bedroll. She knew her knuckles were white.</p><p>“Sure. A normal nightmare: delivering the quarterly report in my basics. Waking up late for an important meeting.”</p><p>“Mara.” Skywalker’s expression was as withering as his tone of voice.</p><p>She scowled and wrapped her arms around herself.</p><p>“Like you’d have any idea.”</p><p>“You think I don’t?”</p><p>She rolled her eyes.</p><p>Luke shook his head quietly to himself. Then he glanced away for a minute, his face falling into shadow.</p><p>“Surely you haven’t forgotten your propaganda. I’m a mass murderer.”</p><p>“Uh huh.” she replied, the words coming fast and certain, “You were at war.”</p><p>His expression sharpened.</p><p>“So were you.”</p><p>“Cute rationalization, Jedi. Go back to sleep.”</p><p>He opened his mouth for a second, but clearly he caught the dismissal and changed his mind.</p><p>“Will you go back to sleep?</p><p>She shrugged. It was never a certainty that she’d sleep again after a dream like that. She needed to if she was going to be sharp in the morning, but working in ideal circumstances was rarely an option.</p><p>Why did this have to happen now when she was stuck in the woods with Skywalker again? Why couldn’t she just have one mission with this man where her psychological state wasn’t in question?</p><p>Her psychological state never used to be an issue at all. She’d run investigations for years with a clear head and firm grasp. But, then, those were the missions that were haunting her now. Now that she’d finally gotten her head back to herself mere weeks ago on Wayland.</p><p>She deserved worse. </p><p>Even after fighting her way for years through the galactic underbelly and dealing with Palpatine’s voice, she knew she deserved worse now than dreams that shattered her sleep and embarrassed her in front of Luke Skywalker.</p><p>She shouldn’t have come. Presuming to spend time with the galaxy’s shiniest of heroes would go nowhere good. Why he seemed to come looking for her whenever he needed someone to help him with the impossible, she’d never understand. She knew it wasn’t because she owed him anything - although he could probably argue that she did, and it would be true.</p><p>He wouldn’t though. It was just who he was. He helped pretty much anyone who came looking. He seemed to think all he had to do was ask as well. Of course, so far that had proved true. She had a feeling she would never be able to say no to a request from that face, those eyes, those lips...</p><p>“Hey.” he said quietly and she realized he was still watching her.</p><p>Damn him.</p><p>“You did what you had to do. The same as the rest of us.”</p><p>Mara felt her eyes narrow.</p><p>She’d heard this argument before: she’d been a child, a victim. They’d seen how she’d fought, how she’d made selfless calls once she’d had a chance to make a decision at all. She was rehabilitated without punishment.</p><p>No one understood.</p><p>Luke Skywalker certainly couldn’t. He was born into a legacy of darkness and managed to skirt the whole thing. He saw light in everything, even when it wasn’t really there. He would despise her if he really knew what she’d done.</p><p>“Oh?” she felt the dangerous tremour in her voice. “Did everyone spent their childhood learning the ideal stress points for setting charges in a conference hall? Did you unquestioningly follow a man who tortured his enemies with lightning? Did ‘the rest of you’ assassinate 142 specific targets before they were 19? Did ‘everyone’ believe they were in the right to the point where they almost kept murdering innocent people even after the Sith scum that raised them was killed?”</p><p>She fell silent, waiting for his sense to shift and for that stupid blind compassion of his to give way to the sheer horror and disgust that he must hold for her underneath it.</p><p>The mutilated faces danced before her again. The fountains of blood came back to her so strongly the acrid metallic odour filled her nose. She was frozen, numbed to her core with memory and guilt.</p><p>And then Luke did shift, but not any way she could have ever anticipated. </p><p>He moved the emergency lamp to her other side. Then he pulled her across the space it had inhabited and into his arms.</p><p>She held herself stiffly as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pressing her face against his chest. She wondered if he expected her to cry and why she suddenly wanted to.</p><p>“I have nightmares.” he said quietly, “all the time.”</p><p>She snorted. It was hard to believe</p><p>“I dream of that day on the Death Star. I dream of fighting my father. I remember the hatred that filled me as I pounded at him with my lightsaber. He’d threatened Leia and I hated him for it. I knew I needed to stop him, but that wasn’t all there was. I wanted him to suffer for even thinking of hurting someone I loved.”</p><p>For a moment his grip tightened around her and then he seemed to force himself to ease his hold again.</p><p>“If I’d succeeded,” he continued softly,  “If I’d killed him though, Palpatine would have won. The dark side would have won. And it would have been because I’d cared too much to think straight, to keep my fear and anger from taking over.</p><p>It could happen again. I’m terrified it will happen again.”</p><p>She pulled back just enough to meet his gaze with her own.</p><p>“Luke, caring for people isn’t going to turn you to the dark side. That was definitely not Palpatine’s problem.”</p><p>A wave of gratitude washed through her as his eyes softened and he cradled her head in his hands. Mara felt her shoulders relax as his lips met hers softly. She responded, wondering at the tenderness and gentle passion of his kiss. Luke stroked a hand down the back of her light shirt as his tongue traced her lips seeking an opening. Mara acquiesced and he deepened the kiss, pulling her even closer as he unzipped his sleep sack and drew her legs inside before zipping it again to cocoon around them.</p><p>He pressed her into the ground beneath him holding her safe as their kisses grew more ardent, and the heat grew between them. It was no longer just about mutual comfort or the care between allies. This was a flame igniting from tinder that had been smouldering since they’d crossed paths in deep space, parsecs from anywhere.</p><p> Mara arched into luke and felt his hardness against her thigh as he kissed her open mouth, asking her assent with a gasp and a glance.</p><p>She nodded and they quickly pressed closer to each other, stripping just enough clothing to join their bodies with a gasp of desire that surpassed both their expectations.</p><p>And under the soft starry night, they granted one another cries of pleasure, over and over, until they were sated.</p><p>One thing had become very clear, a sleepy, pleasure-logged Mara considered to herself as Luke’s chest rose and fell under her.</p><p>The child of Darth Vader held no enmity for her at all. </p><p>Quite the opposite.</p><p>She smiled, more content than she had ever been, and slept.</p>
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